The Benchmark Canada Awards have once again distinguished Gowling WLG as home to one of the country’s top litigation practices, honouring the firm with one of four Impact Case of the Year awards at last night’s gala in Toronto.
Gowling WLG was given the award for its representation of Ernst & Young Inc. in the appeal of its unprecedented oppression claim amid the corporate restructuring proceedings of Essar Steel Algoma Inc. — one of Canada’s largest integrated steel mills.
Ernst & Young, the monitor in the restructuring, brought the claim against parent company Essar Global Fund Limited (EGFL), along with other related companies, with respect to a transaction that transferred Algoma’s port facilities in Sault Ste. Marie to Port of Algoma Inc., one of EGFL’s indirect subsidiaries.
Prior to this case, a monitor had never before acted as an oppression claimant. However, in December 2017, the Ontario Court of Appeal confirmed that a court may indeed authorize a monitor to step beyond its traditionally neutral role to commence adversarial litigation connected to a corporate restructuring.
